Team to plan ways of protecting Rio Grande flow

ODESSA, Texas (AP)  The National Park Service is seeking new ideas on protecting the Rio Grande as it flows through Big Bend National Park and along the Texas-Mexico border.

The Rio Grande Wild and Scenic Partnership Team, sponsored by the Park Service, is scheduled to meet Wednesday at Midland International Airport.

Team members are working on issues related to developing and implementing a river management plan for the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, said Lou Good of the Park Service.

Big Bend National Park superintendent Frank Deckert said the main issues facing the river are lack of flow and poor water quality.

He said parts of the river have literally dried up from El Paso to Presidio, where the Rio Concho flows up from Mexico, due to irrigation in New Mexico and the incursion of salt cedar into the riverbed.

The forest of salt cedars is almost a mile wide at some points, Deckert said.

The imported plant has broad-reaching root systems that can drain a river system and also inject salt into a watershed.

Deckert said most of the water Texas gets that flows from Presidio down to the Gulf of Mexico comes from the Rio Concho.

The Rio Grande's wild and scenic portion now runs from the border of Terrell and Val Verde counties west to the border of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila within the boundary of Big Bend National Park, Deckert said.

He said one goal of the meeting is developing a coalition of federal, state and county interests that will work with private landowners, commercial outfitters, recreational users and conservation groups to address issues facing the waterway.